University of Virginia Library

DRAFTING ROOMS.

The drafting rooms are abundantly lighted and are provided with
solidly constructed tables with locked drawers for instruments and materials.
Each student is assigned to a table and has a drawer for his exclusive
use. The regular Drawing Classes execute each one plate a week
under the supervision of the Instructors in Drawing. The more advanced
students have such additional drawings assigned by their respective professors
as are needed for the full development of the courses of study.

Careful attention is given to the training of the students in free-hand
lettering, in the conventional signs of mechanical drawing, in the proper
lay-out of drawings, and in neat and accurate execution. Exercises are
required also in tracing and in blue-printing, the rooms for which are
conveniently arranged and in close contiguity to the drafting rooms. While,
however, technical dexterity is demanded, the graphical method is taught

and used primarily as an indispensable instrument of research, the thoughtful
mastery of which is essential for the instructed Engineer.

The construction and theory of the Polar Planimeter, the Slide Rule,
and the Pantograph are carefully taught, and the student is trained in the
practical use of these appliances for the rapid and accurate production of
estimates and copies from finished drawings.